Friday, September 28, 2012

HU JINTAO WANTS TO COMPLETE ACTION AGAINST BO XILAI BEFORE HANDING OVER AS PARTY CHIEF

B.RAMAN

Hu Jintao is keen to have the proceedings against
Bo Xilai,, the party boss of the southwestern metropolis of
Chongqing, completed before handing over as the General Secretary of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) to his expected successor Xi Jinping.

2.The transition to Xi is to take place at the 18th
Congress of the CPC. Originally, the expectations were that the 18th
Congress would be held on October 18 , 2012, at which Hu will hand over to Xi
the leadership of the Party and a new Politburo and its Standing Committee
would take over.

3. But till September 27, there was no announcement
of the exact date of the Congress. This gave rise to speculation that the delay
was due to divergence of opinion among senior leaders of the party as to
whether the disciplinary and criminal proceedings against Bo should be
supervised by the present Politburo and its Standing Committee headed by Hu or
by the new Politburo and its Standing Committee that will be headed by Xi with
Hu having no more control over the proceedings.

4. This speculation was ended on September 28,2012, with a twin
announcement regarding the completion of the Party disciplinary proceedings
against Bo under Hu’s supervision and the proposed convening of the 18th
Party Congress on November 8 instead of on October 18 as originally expected.

5. It was announced by the official Xinhua news
agency that Bo, who had been a member of the powerful Politburo, was stripped
of his party membership and other positions held by him. It said:

"Bo Xilai's behaviour created serious negative
consequences, seriously damaged the party and the country's reputation in China
and abroad, created an extremely negative result, and created huge losses for
the party and the Chinese people. Bo made serious errors and he bears the major
responsibility for the scandal that saw Gu Kailai (his wife) convicted of
murdering British businessman Neil Heywood after a multi-million-dollar deal
went sour. Bo seriously violated party discipline and abused his power with
regard to the Gu Kailai and Wang Lijun (his police chief) cases, made serious
errors, for which he bears the major responsibility, abused his public position
to aid others and, directly and through family members, received huge bribes
from others. Gu Kailai used Bo Xilai's public position to win favours for
others, including family members. Bo's family members received huge financial
benefits from others, and Bo had inappropriate sexual relationships with several
women."

6. The completion of the disciplinary proceedings
against him in the party and his removal from all the positions held by him in
the party set the stage for his criminal trial. The decision to hold the 18th
Party Congress from November 8 to formalise the transition of the party
leadership from Hu to Xi would enable the existing party leadership headed by
Hu to have the criminal trial completed and judgement pronounced before Hu
hands over to Xi.

7. While this would be procedurally correct, the completion
of all the proceedings under Hu’s leadership would also ensure that the new
party leadership that would take over on November 8 would not show any leniency
to Bo. ( 28-9-12)